The invention relates to tilting seats and more particularly, to an articulated fitting for a tilting seat which allows seat back inclination to be pre-set while allowing an adjustment mechanism to pivot the seat back and return it to the previous inclination position.
Along with an inclination adjustment fitting, an articulated fitting of the known type disclosed, for example, in DE 100 31 640 A1 includes a memory mechanism for the position of seat back inclination consisting of a ratcheting disk and a ratcheting block, as well as an additional pawl that blocks the ratcheting disk. Such fittings offer the advantage that automobile seats possessing only a seat back inclination adjustment, and a seat back inclination adjustment coupled with a forward-tilt option, which the front seats of two door vehicles require, may be equipped with the same inclination adjustment fittings. Such front seats merely require an additional memory mechanism to store the inclination adjustment value. The known solution is expensive because it includes numerous individual moving parts.
The present invention provides a seat back inclination that is determined by fittings that require no active actuation when the seat back is tilted forward. Since seat back inclination adjustments occur, as a rule, less frequently than a forward tilting of the seat back, the invention reduces the wear to the elements that secure the seat back in its various inclination positions.
Accordingly, the present invention features an articulated fitting for seats with adjustable seat back inclination that is free to pivot about the same horizontal axis for backward inclination adjustment as well as for forward tilt into a release position which includes an inclination adjustment fitting by means of which the desired inclination may be fixed and released by means of a first actuation element for free swiveling about the pivot axis. The articulated fitting further includes a ratcheting disk that may be fixed in a swivel position by means of a ratcheting block, and a strike surface for an opposing element.
A second actuation element is provided to release the inclination adjustment fitting to allow the seat back to tilt forward. The first actuation element is formed so that it might displace the ratcheting block located in the seat body into, and out of, engagement with the ratcheting disk. The second actuation element is coupled with the first actuation element that leaves a specified displacement area, whereby the opposing element is fixed so that it cannot tilt, and so that the strike surface is pre-tensioned toward the opposing element by a spring.